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Your Career Action Plan: Junior Year

Your junior year is a great time to start zeroing in on your career goals, land an internship or begin preparing applications for graduate school. Here are some things you should focus on this year.

Review Your Academic Progress

Assess your freshman and sophomore activities list.

Think about the skills you gained through each activity. If you haven’t gotten involved yet, now’s the time. Extracurriculars help you cultivate the skills and experience valued by employers.

Plan for graduate school.

If you’re thinking about graduate school, begin to gather information. The graduate school section of our website offers a complete timeline to help you get organized.

Plan Career-Oriented Activities

Search HireTigers and other sources for internships.

Summer of junior year is your final opportunity for a summer internship while in college. Some internships post early in the fall semester. Check frequently to avoid missing deadlines. Search HireTigers for on-campus interviews, and explore the additional online resources in the related links section. Check out our event calendar for customized internship workshops scheduled for your class.

Attend meet ups and career fairs meet potential employers and learn about opportunities.

On-campus fairs include:

#HireTigers Meetup (September)

Science and Technology Career Fair (October)

Summer Internship Meetup (to be announced)

Startup Career Fair (to be announced)

Off-campus fairs include:

Engineering Consortium Fair (October)

All-Ivy Environmental Fair (March)

Network with alumni and other professionals.

Developing and expanding your network now will help in your internship search this year and your full-time job search next year.

Maintain Your Professional Image

Update your resume and online profiles.

Schedule an appointment or visit us during walk-in hours in the afternoon to have your resume and LinkedIn profile critiqued. Small changes can go a long way toward aligning these resources for maximum effectiveness.

Manage your online image.

When using social media or other online networking tools, know that your online persona will shape others’ opinions and perceptions of you — personally and professionally. Search for yourself online and see what comes up. Delete anything negative that you have control over. Use sound judgment and think of the long-term ramifications when sharing new information online.

Cultivate your online brand.

Be strategic about what and where you post to showcase your knowledge, abilities and accomplishments — further cultivating your online brand. Develop an online portfolio of your projects and achievements and have all profiles link to it. Follow organizations and thought leaders in the field to keep up on trends and participate in social media conversations via comments on blogs or posts.